Panasonic 58 Inch Plazma TV Review and Price Tip

Christmas came early for me. We had the extended family Thanksgiving celebration at our house this year, and we decided since my Christmas present was going to be a new big screen TV, I could get it early and everyone could watch the Cowboys on a large screen Thanksgiving day. I did a lot of research the two weeks prior, finally settling on a 60 inch DLP Sony model for $3,000. However, when I ended up at the store to actually make the purchase my wife finally put her foot down and insisted on a plasma that could be wall mounted above our fireplace.

Since I was not willing to give up much screen real estate and she had a fixed budget for this item, we finally compromised on the Panasonic TH-58PZ700U 58" plazma. I'd already done some research on this model and set it aside, assuming it would be too expensive. The store we were in had it marked at $3,799.00, about $800 more that the 60" DLP I had been planning to buy. A quick search on the web via my BlackBerry found an in-store price of $3,699.00 at a competitor so the sales manager sold it to me for $3,699 and informed me there was also a 30 day low price guarantee.

The Panasonic TH-58PZ700U weighs in at 168 lbs, and comes in a cardboard box that filled the length of my pick-up bed and was about 20" wide. It took me and two store employees to load it into the truck, then I spent a good thirty minutes tying it down since it couldn't slide into the bed of our Avalanche far enough to close the tailgate.

Once I got that monster home and hooked up at 1080i to my Verizon Fios service I was astounded at how much better the picture was than it had looked in the store. It was clear that the store display model was only being fed 480i. I went back later and found that they have all their display models hooked up with s-video cables, which can't carry signals above 480i. I tried out both 720p and 1080i feeds from my Verizon PVR, and couldn't tell any difference in quality, so untill providers start broacasting in 1080p, I guess most people will get as good a picture with a less expensive 720p television, but I'm happy knowing that if 1080p ever arrives, my set is ready for it...although I can't imagine how a picture can be any clearer or more detailed that what I get now at 720p or 1080i on my Panasonic TH-58PZ700U. Even during scenes with intense action, such as a beautiful touchdown pass and subsequent run into the end zone orchestrated by Tony Romo and completed with Terrel Owens, the picture was smooth and sharp.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover something I'd missed during my research: the TH-58PZ700U has a built-in photo card reader. I stuck the memory card from my wife's digital camera in it and kicked off a slide show. We were really impressed at the photo display and realized we'd never really seen the quality of pictures her 6 megapixel Nikon digital camera took until now.

Over all, I'm incredibly pleased with this new television at the $3,699.00 price. I've seen it in several other stores priced at $4,499.00 and nowhere as low as the price I paid, but I did go back to that particular store yesterday and get a $100.00 refund because they had it priced at $3,599.00 in their system, even though they'd marked it up to $4,499.00 on the display.

The only issue some folks may have with this plasma TV is screen reflection. If you put it on a wall that has any lamps or other concentrated light sources opposite to it you will be unhappy. The lights on our ceiling fan (which we rarely use so this isn't an issue for us) reflect on the screen so you can see every bulb shining over the program you're watching when they are on. I suspect it would not be viewable at all in direct sunlight. There are models out there with anti-glare or non-reflective glass.